Feedstuffs Magazine
Hog Industry Insider
Sept. 17, 2001
By STEVE MARBERY
Feedstuffs Correspondent

Sow unit pending

Swine Graphics Enterprises Inc. of Webster City, Iowa, is awaiting
approval
for a 3,800-head breeding/farrowing complex in southern Iowa’s Clarke
County, three miles northeast of Murray and 10 miles west of Osceola. A
permit application for the proposed five-barn project has been pending
for
three months. Initial delays arose when the county failed to publish the

permit application until last month. Iowa’s Department of Natural
Resources
(DNR) is reviewing the request and responding to 50 citizens opposing
the
project.

Citizens have complained about odor and groundwater pollution potential.

They also alleged the company broke the law by excavating before DNR
approval. Allegations are included in a report citizens filed recently
with
the state.

Craig Loffredo, company director of sow operations, said grading
activities
comply with state rules allowing earth movement if related to permitted
stormwater diversion. The company operates four Clarke County sow units,

including a facility built two years ago on the Mormon Trail that
prompted a
public protest. All facilities are sized at 3,800 sows and gilts.

Aeration alternatives

Odor control measures for the proposed operation include stationary
lagoon
aeration similar to waste treatment applied on two existing Clarke
County
Swine Graphics complexes. All operations utilize two-stage lagoons with
pit
recharge systems. The company will have spent $500,000 on aeration when
the
new operation is completed, with estimated total annual operating
(electricity) expenses for treatment at $125,000, Loffredo noted. He
believes fixed aeration systems have helped reduce odor concerns.

Citizens fear total hog numbers will overwhelm efforts to contain odor,
although the pig population is low compared to some northern Iowa
counties.
A looming concern involves potential for expansion on farmland the
company
purchased recently a few miles south of the proposed operation. Loffredo

said there are no immediate plans to build barns on the property.

When the new project is completed, Swine Graphics will own more than
20,000
sows, mostly in Clarke County, but attrition among the company’s leased
farrowing units statewide has offset overall expansion, he said. The
company
feeds all of its pigs in Iowa.

Leader of a concerned citizens organization Pat Anderson said slurry
disposal is the real issue. Anderson, who farms with her husband a mile
from
the proposed complex, has told DNR the company lacks enough land for its

manure. Loffredo disputed those allegations. He said the company owns 65

acres and has obtained easements for 200 acres, more than enough for
slurry
application. Citizens believe moving manure tankers along their roads
will
pose odor problems that transcend lagoons and hog barns. That concern is
not
unique to Clarke County.

Copyright 2001, The Miller Publishing Company, a company of Rural Press
Ltd.

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